Answers

Used to work on a dairy farm that had a motley crew of breeds in the
herd. Even had a few angus! The milk seemed to be ok. The udder is
very weird compared to a dairy breed, with long narrow quarters and
long fat teats. But I suspect you would have less problem with udder
edema and loss of suspension in later years. You also will probably
have better than average pasturing ability in those cows, than you
would have in pure Holstein, as Angus can maintain body condition on
pretty poor pasture. However, keep in mind that Angus tend to be
more wild natured. They are harder to work with than Herefords, for
instance. But then, Holsteins are so laid-back that these cross-
breeds may be easy to handle. I would pay close attention to
personality right now, before you buy. Look for intelligence,
curiosity, and trust.

I have no problem with mine for wildness. The few times they break out
they come to the house & bug me to put them back in. I find Holstiens
very hard on fences. The black male calves are gentler than the white
male calves for me. Not that I trust either...

My problem is breeding - if the gal favors a little boned Angus, and
has big boned Holstien calf it gets a little tough once in a while.

Tracy, are you talking about having them for beef or to milk? I have
had several half and halfs in my dairy herd. They milk all right and
their udder depends on which half they took after. I've had ones
like daffodyllady describes and ones that had udders like a pretty
decent Holstein. For looks, they much more resemble an Angus than
anything else. Very blocky, broad cows. The crosses are nearly
always solid black, too. For beef because the body type resembles
the Angus closely they do very well.

They would be both for milk and meat....I plan to milk the cows and/or
use them for nurse cows, and then breed them back to an Angus bull
every year (cause I can breed them for free :))

The babies we will raise to butcher.

This cross was suggested to me by a local rancher. He has a dairyman
buddy who has these crosses....he said the Mexican workers usually
take them (because they don't keep them in the herd) but that he was
sure he could wrangle a few for me. He said they milk pretty good,
and that we'd have something nicer to butcher than a full Holstein.
Also, Black cattle sell for more $ in the ring if we ever had to get
rid of any babies that way.

I have a 10 month old angus/holstein cross heifer. She resembles an
angus and I plan to bred her to an angus, and use her babies for
beef. I must say that if I had a chance I would have chosen a
hereford cross instead. Indeed she has a fiery side to her, although
raised as a bottle baby she did throw my husband across the barn the
other day as he was attempting to tie her up for her grain. She is
sweet on occasion but she can be a pistol. Good Luck!

We have had a Holstein-Angus cross milk cow and of all our dairy
animals she was my favorite. We got her as a bred heifer and she was
straight from a herd, it didn't take long for her to cozy up to us
and I NEVER thought of her as wild. She had an udder very much like
a Holstein and her milk was delicious, with more than enough cream!!
We always bred her back to an Angus bull because that was what we had
access to and she threw wonderful calves. Fortunately we almost
always got a bull calf but when we didn't we were always able to sell
her calf as a bred heifer for about $800(this was back in the 70's)
at fair time. We could have sold our steers, too, but we preferred
to eat them. We didn't show our animals, just posted on the bulletin
board. I just don't see how you could go wrong. Oh, and our cow was
black with two front legs white with a white chest and belly, her
name was Josie.

Sounds like a good plan. My father was a Holstein dairyman and had one of the top herds in Ohio for awhile. However...

Depending on Your needs/wants You may want to consider an Angus/Jersey cross. Gene Logsdon talks about this cross's
benefits compared to a Angus/Holstein cross in several of his books. I 'think' A/H gives gallons more milk than A/J, but
the butterfat content will be much less. You're also dealing with a bigger animal which may not fit Your farm as
efficiently as a smaller A/J. Gene also found A/J does better as a nurse cow, if I remember correctly. And the black is still
dominant in the A/J cross.

Either way, I've heard lots of positive comment on Angus/dairy crosses and Angus breeders seem to pursue the crossbred
market for thier bulls.